Misery loves company or I'm not alone!

I don't know if something's in the water or if October is self-realization month but around the same time I blogged about my biggest writing weakness being characterization, two other authors blogged about their own writing weaknesses.

While of course I know logically that all authors have their own weaknesses, as a newbie writer its easy to tell myself that my weaknesses are worse than others, than in fact other writers are exaggerating their own weaknesses. And that when I read a book I like, with all the pieces well-put together, that author probably never struggled a day in her life with her writing skills. Creating coherent scenes, believable characters, well-paced action and a satisfying ending just come naturally to those authors.

So it's nice to read about other authors, especially ones I like, speaking about their own struggles. For instance Leann Sweeney, the author of a fun cozy called The Cat, The Quilt and the Corpse, recently wrote on her blog (Writers Plot) about how she has a hard time getting humor into her books, and a hard time with criticism. She blogged about crying while reading her editor's comments and listening to her book group's critiques. As I'm sure I'll probably be hysterical the first time I get a rejection or really tough criticism (at my first staff writing job I used to go the bathroom and cry after my managing editor tore apart my articles) from anyone, its nice to know that I won't be alone.

On the Women of Mystery blog Laura K. Curtis (a so-far unpublished writer) blogged about having trouble with writing love scenes. This from a woman who writes romantic suspense! That's a pretty important aspect to struggle with! So once again, I feel reassured. If a romantic suspense writer can find a way to write love scenes, even though its hard for her, then I can find a way to make my characters believable!

As both writers said in their blogs -- and I've said it before -- writing is work. It's hard and its grueling and its frustrating and it knocks all the confidence out of you. But...

But when you've managed to slog your way through all of that, and all the pieces finally come together, it's magical.

Or at least that's the carrot I'm holding out in front of me since I've never reached that light at the end of the tunnel. But reading about other people's journeys and knowing they did reach the light, I have to have faith it'll be there for me too.